Tag: site

“I want a web site.” There’s never been so much, or so little encapsulated in such an innocent phrase. When used without any further qualification it has web designers and IT consultants in despair! Why? Let me elaborate….

A web site can contain a single page or several thousand pages. A web site can do nothing apart from show you images and words or it can be a fully fledged application with interactivity and many, many man hours of coding of the bits you see and the bits that you don’t see. In fact to ask for a piece of string without specifying its length seems positively simple in comparison.

So, how does an IT expert respond so such a nebulous 5 words? My response is to ask: “What do you want the web site to do?” Usually this is followed by a long moment of stunned silence as the business owner is faced for the first time with the concept of purpose. The bottom line is, if you don’t know what you want your web site to do for you, then why spend a significant amount of money on one. And how are you going to be satisfied that the web designer has done what you ask if you don’t know yourself?

So, if you’re considering investing in your first web site, or considering changing what you already have the first question to ask yourself is this: what do I want my web site to achieve?

When considering the design of a web site it is vital to consider early on the use of photographic images. Images are vital to any web site, but they must be appropriate and must support the message conveyed by the words. We tend to naturally look for images as a means of judging the tone of an article. Although this may not be the best way to judge content, in an environment where attention span can be reduced to mere seconds it is vital to support words with appropriate images. These images draw the attention and contribute to the perceived professionalism of the site and the content.

A new visitor to a web site will come to subjective conclusions about the site, the content, the authors or businesses based on their initial perceptions of the quality of the design and imagery. It helps, then, to make sure that the photographs are: present, of high quality & appropriate to the content. How does your site stack up?

What is a web site, and what should it do for your business? For many small businesses there is a feeling that a web site is important, but not much of an idea as to why, or what it should do.

The most important consideration for the small business is what the web site will do for them. For many this is purely informational – an online shop window so that potential customers can find them and find out a little about them before picking up the phone or making a visit. For others it’s about relationship – regular communication about what the business is doing. For many larger businesses the web site acts as a point of sale where purchases may be made. The type of site depends very much on the type of business: often a business requires the personal touch, a face to face meeting before the sale of a product or service; for others with low value, large quantity sales this is not an issue, it’s all about making the purchase easy.

Before considering your web site it is worth asking the question for your business: What do I want this to do for us? If you don’t know this, then you will never be sure it’s achieving the end result.